oh la honte

Now I can be ashamed of both of my countries.... egads...

American gum

Setting: on the train to Lyon.

Me: I would offer you some (trident cinnamon gum) but i know you won't like it.

MG: no, I'll try some.

Unwraps & chews while making a face.

Me: told you you wouldn't like it.

MG: tastes like I'm eating a candle.

Me: haha! Can I quote you on that??

Sent from my iPhone

hard... water - HELP!

Requesting some blogging help... !

We have really really hard water. It's weird because according to numerous maps we shouldn't. Our friends who live 5km down the road have normal water. But ours? Hard, so hard. Can't get the shower doors clean, have to clean the hot water kettle once a week at least and now we have switched to using bottled water in our coffee machines so we don't ruin them.

I know we can get a water softener but I really don't like the effect it has on soaps and just the feeling of the water itself.

I've heard good things about different magnets but my question to you is - do you have hard water and how do you deal with it???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

cheesecake "french" style

Bitesize Cheesecakes - Frenchy style!

Take some Speculoos cookies

Spread a nice thick layer of your favorite chilled fromage a tartiner (I go for the 0% Carre Frais)

Then put a little dollop of jam (my favorite, Bonne Maman quatre fruits)

Et Voila! Insta-cheesecake!!! Miiiiammy!

evening conversation

MilkJam: "hey, Starbucks introduced a new size, as big as a Big Gulp, the 'Trenta'."

Mystery Guest: "humm".

MilkJam: "Do you know how big that is??? You can fit a bottle of wine in it!"

Mystery Guest: *rolls eyes*

MilkJam: "Who would make something so big??".

Mystery Guest: "Someone who can't advertise with sex..."

MilkJam: "true...."

Polarize

Playing with my new iPhone app: Polarize... puts your pictures into polariod form - too fun!

Test

test.

my iphone (or blogger) has a bug that when I send a picture to my blog via email from my iPhone it shows up as a broken jpg... but randomly it works from Mystery Guest's iPhone... too weird...

The O-man comes to Normandy!

My computer has been out of service as Mystery Guest transfers my data to my BIG new harddrive so I haven't gotten the chance to reply to comments, but I will!
Buuuut I couldn't wait to share the news that I got on the US Embassy list to get an invitation to attend the D-Day ceremony with OBAMA June 6th!!!!! Woooooot!!!
That, my friends, is the highlight of my week!! :-)

Sent from my iPhone

daylight savings!

Don't forget it was last night in Franceland that we sprung forward 1 hour! Now back to 9 hours difference with the West Coast.

I'm going to go change my clocks before I forget :-)

I just want one!

Dear France,

Why is it that you can never remember to pronounce the third person "s" or plural "s" yet you correct me when I order un cookie. "Oui, un cookies, il vous faillait autre chose?"

It is not un cookiezz
nor un browniezz
nor un donutzz.

Thank you,
MilkJam.

what a day!

Wow what a day, not bad but ranks up there with crazyness! I left (as usual on a Wednesday) at 7:25am to catch my 7:39 train. As I got nearer to the station I noticed a train sitting there, I thought oh, that's funny usually there's isn't a train to Cherbourg at that time, huh. As I got closer I realized it wasn't moving... oh well it looks like its on the other tracks, should be fine.

I got up to the station and realized it was on my tracks but was not my cute little TER but a big Paris-bound train... glup.

On the board my train was supprimé and the next train (leaving at 8:02) was expected with a 30-minute delay.. double glup.

So I called my collegue and then the secretary's office saying that not only would I be late for my 9:15am class but that I was giving them one of their final exams today and so please don't let the students leave! They both said no problem, they would make sure the students stayed.
So I finally arrive at 10am and rush up to the classroom where my angles were waiting for me. But alas, it was a video exam (comprehension) and the TV I ordered was not there... glup glup glup...

Track down the TV guy, admit it was my fault (even though it wasn't!) to appease him and get a TV. He brings it. I rush through the beginning of the exam, turn on the video and glup glup glup glup no pause button on the remote. So I had to sit with my head bent under the TV pausing it as they take their test.

Things go well, I haven't graded them yet but I think the students did pretty well. I had a nice lunch with my colleges and Sarah and I grab the tram to head into town. A few stops in, glup, the tram stops and says that a big demonstration has blocked the tram system and we could wait or get out there! So we got into town and continued on foot.

I went on my way to the pool (told Sarah that if the pool was closed I might have to kill someone) and had a lovely swim. The rest of the afternoon went great, got to see a good friend and have some tea before catching the (ontime) train home.

But man was that a stressful morning! So glad my students kept their cool even after their teacher was on the fritz! :-) I guess its easy when you blame the SNCF ... !

un petit cafe?

le Café - Oldelaf (english subtitles)
envoyé par Boebis

I saw this yesterday and just cracked up. I like the song but I loooooooove the animation that they did with it... it is so true.. so sad and so true.. Coffee anyone?

Spring is springing

Yesterday I had to go to Caen but I was able to take advantage of a sunny spring day & enjoy a delish hot cocoa with Natalie and her Irish coffee as excellent company! But as March is just a big tease the grey skies are back again today.. Time to be productive I guess!
In other alcoholic news Mystery Guest came back from work at lunch with a gift from a customer - a 1971 bottle of homemade Calvados...

Should we drink it? Or sterilize an open wound?

gibberish

Now I'm not totally coincée when it comes to writing "proper" English or French, you'll see me making plenty of spelling mistakes and when I send sms I will from time to time type "u" instead of "you" to make it fit in the restricted length but I do have to admit that when sending emails it really peeves me to see nothing but shortcuts.

And those same shortcuts drive me up the wall in French! Gah! I'm in the process of trying to sell my old ipod on leboncoin and the dude who wants to buy it said he'd send me the money and when I recieve it I will send out the ipod. The thing is that his money still hasn't arrived so there has been an email exchange over the last couple days. Me telling him still no cash and him freaking out that his money was lost (yes the stupid idiot did indeed send cash and not a cheque.. retard). But his last email was priceless. Here it is in all its glory...

ba jai complter tonadresec ke tu ma ernvoyer jaibienverefier plusieur foi évoila
tu medira demain si ta recu
pskjete surkeje té envoyer

I'm sorry, ever heard of punctuation? Or at least putting a space between words to make them understandable?? I guess not!

well i've joined that club!

Well I've gone and done it, I've joined that club of people walking around with a honkin' phone attacked to their ear.

But isn't it beautiful??? It sure is the most expensive phone I've ever bought! But I've wanted one since they came out with the new model but there was no way I'd spend over 100e on a phone attacked to a 24month contract at 40 bucks a month, oh no! I'm too attached to my ever-so-basic phone plan of 17e a month (no contract!) and I was definitely not going to shell out 600e to buy it sans forfait...

So I waited, was very very happy with my ipod touch birthday present, it was essentially the same thing right? Oh I realized just how wrong I was when Mystery Guest was using his iphone as a GPS, taking pictures and sending them while on vacation etc... And when we found a very gently used one (unSIMlocked) for a very decent price I decided to go for it! Very spur of the moment and all that :-)

Oh... I do not regret it! Plus it made for some very funny stories! I realized that I could almost pay for the price of the iphone by selling my touch and classic ipod that was gathering dust. So I put the first one on leboncoin just to see. I got an email within a day saying that the person would drive up to V-town and buy it, for 30e under asking price. I told him well I actually will be in Caen the next day which is a lot closer so I'll sell it to you there for 20e under. We set up a RDV at the train station which led to a hilarious situation of sms messages back and forth. He had gone to Carrefour and found the same model new, for what he thought, was not that much more than my asking price. So there was this funny exchange of negotiations, he was trying to bring the price down and I was trying to judge just how much he wanted it and if he would go for a higher price.

He finally pointed out that we were smsing over a matter of 15e and that's when I said, ok lets just get it sold. So when he came to the train station (5min before my train was going to leave!) it was all I could do not to laugh, he did not look a day over 16! Preppy clothes and glasses and so eager to get his hands on my touch. He barely looked at it and gave me a roll of cash. Then all evening long he sent me emails, how do I install applications? What does this mean? Do I need a password... hehe for a teenager as branché as he was trying to be it just made me laugh!

That's not 1/2 as funny as the guy who emailed me for the ipod, apparently I'm waiting for his cash in the mail (yes, you read that right) and then sending him the ipod. But as he so eloquently worded it, watch it lady, if you steal my money I'm taking you downtown!

Yeah, so this has been quite an email/sms adventure. But leboncoin sure does work for selling things quickly!

This post was so much longer than I had expected but I'm just gaga over my new toy :-) Too bad no one is calling me on it! If they did I'd be ever so excited to see their face (yes, I added pictures to all my contacts hehe) pop up on my screen!!!

1999

Prince - '1999' (rUmPeLsTiLtSkIn)


Wow I can't believe it's been 10 years since I graduated high school! All over Facebook the class leaders from back then are getting all psyched up organizing this year's high school reunion. They decided on a weekend in May, when the local festival takes place. Good idea and all for those living in the area but for the rest of us (across the US and out of country) it is really impractical. First of all my little hometown is a good 2 hours from Seattle's airport so it makes a weekend trip difficult for anyone flying in. Secondly May isn't exactly the easiest time to get vacation.

It's crazy, when I was in high school I swore I'd never go but for some reason I would really like to go but I have no idea why. It's not to catch up with people, I was never friends with any of them and highly doubt I would be today.

I guess it is the curiosity that's getting to me. I guess I'll content myself to continue stalking them on Facebook and looking at reunion pictures. :-)

joey does not share food!

The other day I was listening to the K&K podcast and the girls started talking about sharing food at the table - how it just isn't done in France like it is in the States ("Can I have a bite of this or that?"). I don't grab people's food off their plates but I do like asking to try something especially if I'm in a restaurant and the other person has ordered something different.

This whole idea reminded me of a hilarious situation a few months ago when my friend Cassa came to visit back in September. We did some touristy things but the highlight was going out to Saint Vaast to check out the port town and for Cassa to try some fresh local oysters. We went into a fairly nice restaurant and I got moule-frites and Cassa got oysters on the haf-shell. As we were catching up we noticed a very lively group sitting at the table next to us. At the end of the meal I couldn't eat 1 more bite of frite or mussel and the guy asked me if they were good since I hadn't finished. I said yes and joking asked if he wanted to try mine, to my shock he leaned over and scooped up half of my plate of fries!

Now that's a first!

Oh, and Katia, this is for you:

toodles dubya!

Spotted in the FNAC comic book section... I can't wait for Tuesday!!

i haven't aged a day in 10 years... riiiight!

MilkJam age 17

I got my passport back today, the mailman came yesterday while I was at work so I guess technically I got the package yesterday. So that makes it 1 week to the day that I sent it out. Considering that there was the postage time in between V-town and Paris (granted it was Chronopost but that doesn't travel instantaneously either!) and then the Saturday/Sunday I will have to say that those Embassy people are seriously speedy!!!

It's amazing how used you get to administration moving at the pace, of well, an escargot in France and it is shocking when things are just so speedy!

I give you my new passport, shiny and stamp free (for now!). It is a god awful picture so I might take it down soon.. yikes!

passport fun.

My old passport expires this year. I remember when I got it, back in 1999, it was the summer I graduated high school and mom took me on a trip as a graduation present to see the solar eclipse.

I remember thinking, wow 2009, I'll be 27 - so OLD! I couldn't even picture my future 10 years from then.. little did I know I'd be living here in Normandy and sending in my stamp filled passport to get renewed in Paris.

This is not the first time my passport has traveled by chronopost, a few years ago I had to add more pages, ran out of room! Back in the day the carte de sejours were like visas and glued in your passport - you run out of room fast that way!

But now my ghetto old school passport (with the picture actually glued in and then laminated over, no digital back in the day!) is going back to Paris today and I will get a new biometric one in it's place. It was quite a mission though, trying to get this renewal underway!

American passport pictures are not the same size and specifications as French ones, so I had to hunt out a photographer that could take my American picture, found one yesterday in Caen.

So 2 terrible passport pictures later, (no joke, they're terrible!!! no smiling the guy told me!) :
15 euros
42 euros for 2 chronopost envelopes (yup the US Embassy makes you pay postage to send it back, grrr...)
55 euros (approx from $75) renewal fee.

Thank god that will be over with for the next 10 years! I can't wait to get my hands on that puppy, and I'm really glad their sending the old one back, so many memories!